1745,Richard Pococke,A Description of the East, and Some other Countries[1], Volume II, Book I, Chapter 1:
The island of Scio is now called by the Greeks Kio [Χιο], the antient Greek name of it was Chios [Χιος]; it was first called Ætalia in very antient times, and also Mastic, on account of the great number ofmastic trees that were in this island.
A hard, brittle, aromatic and transparentresin produced by this tree and used to makevarnishes andchewing gum, and as a flavouring.
1799,John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich,Voyage Performed by the Late Earl of Sandwich Round the Mediterranean in the Years 1738 and 1739, Written by Himself[2], pages317–318:
Themastic, of which the people ofScio gather every year an incredible quantity, is a very rich gum, made use of in medicines, which distils from a shrub called, in Latin, Lentiscus.
1830,Thomas Moore,Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: with Notices of his Life[3], volume I, New York: J. & J. Harper, page402:
Having taken upon me to order the repast, and knowing that Lord Byron, for the last two days, had done nothing towards sustenance, beyond eating a few biscuits and (to appease appetite) chewingmastic, I desired that we should have a good supply of, at least, two kinds of fish.
1834,James Augustus St. John,Egypt and Mohammed Ali, or Travels in the Valley of the Nile, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, Volume I, Chapter 132, pp. 322-323,[4]
[…] in many harems, the women are in the habit of burningmastic on a small chaffing-dish, and holding the mouth of the jars over the smoke; by which means they communicate to them a scent which perfumes the water for eight or ten days, at the expiration of which the operation must be repeated.
1936, Rollo Ahmed,The Black Art, London: Long, page112:
Aromatics were used, too, especially in necromancy, and an old recipe of that sort comprises Musk, Myrrh, Frankincense, Red Storax,Mastick, Olibanum, Saffron, Benzoin and Labdanum.
Mastic (plant resin) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia